THE EFFECT OF STRESS AND ENVIRONMENTAL ENRICHMENT ON DISEASE PROGRESSION IN MESIAL TEMPORAL LOBE EPILEPSY
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$578,201.00
Summary
Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy, the most common form of drug-resistant epilepsy in adults, is a progressive neurodegenerative condition for which there is currently no effective disease modifying treatment. This proposal will explore whether co-morbid stress accelerates disease progression in MTLE, and whether targeting stress pathways by medical and environmental manipulations can mitigate against this.
Sound practice: Supporting sustainable careers in orchestral musicians through Occupational Health and Safety initiatives. This project will produce new knowledge about musician health, well-being and injury prevention and management. It will establish the first injury surveillance system for musicians internationally and the first set of rigorous studies to evaluate the effectiveness of injury management interventions for orchestral musicians. We will establish musician-specific assessment prot ....Sound practice: Supporting sustainable careers in orchestral musicians through Occupational Health and Safety initiatives. This project will produce new knowledge about musician health, well-being and injury prevention and management. It will establish the first injury surveillance system for musicians internationally and the first set of rigorous studies to evaluate the effectiveness of injury management interventions for orchestral musicians. We will establish musician-specific assessment protocols, practices and interventions leading to effective OHS policies, thus enabling global improvement in OHS in the music industry, preventing economic and personal loss from premature career termination due to injury, and assisting, through mentoring, the new generation of young orchestral musicians.Read moreRead less
Collaborative approaches to the prevention of work related injuries in railway workers. RailCorp NSW is a large employer within the NSW transport industry sector and as such has a high potential exposure to occupational injury. RailCorp has committed to the safety of its employees through its efforts towards a systematic identification of injury risk factors to create a safer workplace as well as creating a 'risk aware safety culture'. Interventions which are effective in reducing the incidenc ....Collaborative approaches to the prevention of work related injuries in railway workers. RailCorp NSW is a large employer within the NSW transport industry sector and as such has a high potential exposure to occupational injury. RailCorp has committed to the safety of its employees through its efforts towards a systematic identification of injury risk factors to create a safer workplace as well as creating a 'risk aware safety culture'. Interventions which are effective in reducing the incidence and severity of work related injuries have not only immediate benefits both in terms of human (workforce retention, job satisfaction, job performance, etc) and financial factors for RailCorp management and its employees but has wider applications to other comparable complex high risk industries.
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Enhancing employee safety in response to workplace violence. International and national trends indicate that workplace violence is a significant growing problem. Poorly managed, victims can suffer physical and psychological trauma, and employers risk increases in workers compensation claims, insurance premiums, employee turnover, sick leave and low morale. There is a dearth of research into the effectiveness of training employees to predict, control and defuse aggressive incidents, yet this is a ....Enhancing employee safety in response to workplace violence. International and national trends indicate that workplace violence is a significant growing problem. Poorly managed, victims can suffer physical and psychological trauma, and employers risk increases in workers compensation claims, insurance premiums, employee turnover, sick leave and low morale. There is a dearth of research into the effectiveness of training employees to predict, control and defuse aggressive incidents, yet this is a significant priority for many industries. This project will develop and evaluate a new best practice aggression minimisation training program with 200 mental health employees by an RCT assessing gains in safety, knowledge, skills and confidence in managing violence.Read moreRead less
Caring for the carers: occupational health and safety in homecare. Homecare workers care for vulnerable clients but their own vulnerability to health and safety risks is seldom examined. Pilot research revealed unrecognised hazards arising from the isolated and fragmented nature of the work. This project will systematically identify hazards and develop interventions to promote healthier and safer homecare work.
Precarious employment and health: new knowledge, new solutions. This study examines why insecure forms of employment, such as casual work and self-employment, are usually associated with poorer health than more secure employment. The aim is to identify causes of these adverse effects and to develop policy and practice interventions to minimise them.
Increased Vulnerability To Stress During Opiate Dependence: Molecular, Anatomical, And Behavioural Correlates
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$272,640.00
Summary
Heroin addiction is a major health and societal problem in Australia. It is consistently associated with an adverse impact upon individual users, their families, and communities. It is a chronically relapsing condition for which few, if any effective prevention and treatment strategies exist. Moreover, why an individual initiates and maintains heroin taking remains unclear. Stress and negative emotions have a strong impact on heroin use. Stress may drive some individuals to start using heroin, s ....Heroin addiction is a major health and societal problem in Australia. It is consistently associated with an adverse impact upon individual users, their families, and communities. It is a chronically relapsing condition for which few, if any effective prevention and treatment strategies exist. Moreover, why an individual initiates and maintains heroin taking remains unclear. Stress and negative emotions have a strong impact on heroin use. Stress may drive some individuals to start using heroin, stress increases the pleasurable effects of heroin and stress increases the aversive effects of heroin withdrawal. These effects will encourage addiction and discourage addicts from seeking treatment. Stress can also cause an otherwise drug-free individual to relapse to heroin addiction despite having been drug-free for some time. In this project we will study why stress has such a large impact on heroin addicts and heroin addiction. We will test the hypothesis that heroin use actually produces profound alterations in the neural network in the brain which controls responses to stress. This project uses a simple animal model of heroin addiction whereby rats are injected with morphine to study the regulation of several genes which are important in responding to stress. We will also study how this exposure and changes in gene expression alter neurobiological, cardiovascular, and behavioural responses to stress. This project will identify parts of the brain that are altered during heroin addiction, and will also identify why heroin addicts are more vulnerable to stress than the general population. Therefore, this project will help us to identify targets for therapeutic intervention (both psychological and pharmacological) and possibly disrupt the addictive cycle.Read moreRead less
Does Obesity Have The Characteristics Of Addiction?
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$430,832.00
Summary
The number of overweight or obese people in Australia has increased dramatically in recent years, increasing disease risk. The brain responds to palatable food in ways similar to the response to drugs of addiction, and this may explain why people find it hard to resist palatable food. Our work will explore whether obesity in rats has the characteristics of addiction by examining bingeing, craving, withdrawal and brain circuits in animals chronically exposed to palatable food.
The dynamic interplay of physical and psychosocial safety in frontline healthcare workplaces in Australia and Malaysia. The healthcare industry is under immense pressure. Urgent attention is needed to reduce strains on workers and costs in healthcare. This project will meet these joint objectives through modelling and developing a system that integrates both physical and psychosocial facets to enhance the psychological and physical health of workers and quality care.
Tranquillising Work Stress: Corporate Climate and Antidepressant Use. This national project will investigate the plausible link between distress at work and Australia’s high levels of antidepressant use, through creative linkage of data from the Australian Workplace Barometer (10-year longitudinal study) to antidepressant medication data (via the national Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme). The project advances theory by probing the role corporate climate plays in work design, distress, mental hea .... Tranquillising Work Stress: Corporate Climate and Antidepressant Use. This national project will investigate the plausible link between distress at work and Australia’s high levels of antidepressant use, through creative linkage of data from the Australian Workplace Barometer (10-year longitudinal study) to antidepressant medication data (via the national Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme). The project advances theory by probing the role corporate climate plays in work design, distress, mental health problems and antidepressant use. It will determine if antidepressant use has led to an underestimation of work stress effects. It will estimate the $AUD cost of work related antidepressant use. The project will yield evidence to stimulate corporate climate change to protect worker psychological health and wellbeing.Read moreRead less